Republicans hate government programs that work. They hate, and have tried to bankrupt, Social Security, Medicare, nutrition programs for children and health care for children.

If they cannot destroy a program, they try to privatize it, as they have the prescription program for Medicare, thereby taking public tax money and giving it to their corporate bosses. They would love to privatize Social Security and give public money to Wall Street.

Whenever a government program works, it undermines the Republican belief that government cannot and should not do anything besides national defense and security. They are, of course, wrong. Government should be and is able to do many things well to improve the lives of Americans. The New Deal is an example of programs that undid the abuses of unregulated capitalism that transpired from 1900-1930. These abuses contributed to the worst depression the country has ever seen.

Republican policy has been to deregulate capitalism, to cut taxes for the wealthiest and to undermine confidence in government programs by stealing the tax money intended to support those programs. The result is a capitalistic system out of control.

The failure of unregulated capitalism can be clearly seen in the price of oil and distilled products. The failure can also be seen in public health systems.

I believe that Republican policies since 1980 are driving the country toward another great depression.

Judson R. Duncan, Monmouth